CHARLESTON -

West Virginia is the only state where a person can be a psychologist with a master's degree, rather than a doctorate degree.

Whether or not that needs changed is still up for debate.

During an hour-long public hearing of the West Virginia Legislature's joint standing committee on government organization, 15 people each spoke for a few minutes about what a potential bill would do to the treatment of mental health in West Virginia.

The debate drew a crowded room and an initial list of 46 people who wanted to speak to the potential rule change.

Dr. David Abramson with the American Psychological Association said his organization strongly endorses a doctoral degree as the minimum requirement for the practice of psychology, but said the potential bill would not leave out anyone currently practicing in West Virginia.

"West Virginia is left out of a lot of funds and federal grant money because of so few doctoral psychologists," he said.

Dr. David Blair, the past president of the West Virginia Psychological Association, said keeping the status quo in the state will keep us held back.

"This is not an in-your-face crisis, but it's been growing for decades, and it holds West Virginia back," Blair said.

The potential bill would add two new levels of psychological care in West Virginia to make room and new titles for the varying degrees of training. Blair said Kentucky changed its licensure requirements more than a decade ago. It was a tough, emotional process, but the change was made.

Lanai Jennings spoke on behalf of the West Virginia Department of Education and her family. Jennings said her mother has a mental illness that she described as debilitating.

"I grew up in Preston County and had to leave the state to obtain my doctorate in psychology," she said. "We are looking for the person who can make connections with my mother, and that's missing in this discussion. The turnover in providers is what I view as the crisis."

Dr. Joe Panepinto said the real issue in the discussion is the impact on West Virginians who want psychological services to be able to find them and afford them.

"There is no reason to believe that if this rule changes there will be a big influx of doctorate level psychologists to Mingo County or to Webster County," he said. "There is not much support for this."

Terry Sigley, secretary of the West Virginia Board of Examiners of Psychologists, said she felt like she had been made a "sacrificial lamb," and that the proposed rule is the result of a specific political agenda.

Sigley said the discussion indicated that master's-level psychologists would not be disenfranchised or left out, but said the debate goes on to argue that those psychologists are inadequate.

"We do not have sufficient access," she said. "There is a crisis in meeting the needs of veterans."

Sigley said West Virginia has been selected as part of a pilot program to use master's-prepared psychologists to treat veterans.

Mark Drennan, executive director of the West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association, said the biggest barrier to psychologist recruitment isn't the licensure, it's the state's rural nature.

Dr. Marty Amerikaner, a licensed psychologist and Marshall University professor, said nothing in the proposed bill hurts access.

"To truly be a psychologist … it is impossible to prepare people in a two-year master's degree," he said.

Dr. David Clayman, a Charleston psychologist, likened the rule change to the coal industry.

"When I first came here in 1974, you didn't need certification to go underground," he said. "The practice has changed."